Pineapple slitting and conveying

ABSTRACT

Precored pineapples are contour peeled in a row of contour peeling heads. The precored and peeled pineapples from each peeling head are transferred to a downwardly inclined slide rod having a depending slitter knife and a slit guide flange for slitting and guiding the lower side of the fruit. The partially slit pineapples slide down the guide rod and pass beneath an upper slitter which completes the halving operation. The halved pineapples progress on the chutes that are progressively twisted from a vertical plane at the second slitter to a horizontal plane while the chutes gradually diverge. A juice trough is suspended from the lower edge of the slit guide flange and flexible flaps at the second slitter assist in retaining the pineapples on the twisted chutes.

United States Patent [191 Vadas June 25, 1974 PINEAPPLE SLITTING ANDCONVEYING [75] Inventor: Leslie Vadas, Los Gatos, Calif. Primary WAberpromble Attorney, Agent, or Fzrm-C. E. Tripp [73] Assignee: Castle &Coake, Inc., Honolulu,

Hawaii [5 7] ABSTRACT [22] Filed: Mar. 29, 1973 Precored pineapples arecontour peeled in a row of contour peeling heads. The precored andpeeled pine- [21] Appl' 345929 apples from each peeling head aretransferred to a Related US. Application Data downwardly inclined sliderod having a depending slit- [62] Division of SCI. NO. 233,130, March 9,1972, Pat. ref knlfe and a 511i gulde flange for slitting and guidingNo. 3,760,665. the lower side of the fruit. The partially slitpineapples slide down the guide rod and pass beneath an upper [52] US.Cl 83/9, 83/27, 83/51, Slitter which omple h halving operation. The

83/107, 83/443 halved pineapples progress on the chutes that are pro-[51] Int. Cl B26d 3/08, B26d 7/06 gr ss y st d from a rti al plane atthe second [58] Field of Search 99/233]; 83/27, 51, 9, slitter to ahorizontal plane while the chutes gradually 83/107, 443 diverge. A juicetrough is suspended from the lower edge of the slit guide flange andflexible flaps at the [56] Ref r n Cit d second slitter assist inretaining the pineapples on the UNITED STATES PATENTS twlsted chutes-3,656,529 4/1972 Vadas 99/2337 5 Claims, 21 Drawing FiguresPATENTEUJUNZSiSN SHEU 1 (If 4 PATENTEDJUNZSIW 3.818.788

SHEET 2 0F 4 FIG 1A PAIENTEUJBHZSIQH 3.818.788

I SHEET 3 OF 4 TIB IDA 1 PINEAPPLE SLITTING AND CONVEYING REFERENCE TORELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a division of my copendingapplication, Ser. No. 233,130, filed Mar. 9, 1972, now U.S. Pat. No.3,760,665.

The U.S. application of Vadas Ser. No. 855,520, filed Sept. 5, 1969, nowU.S. Pat. No. 3,656,529 and assigned to Castle & Cook is directed tocutting the pineapples into halves in one operation, guiding theindividual halves by their core holes and gradually twisting the guidesuntil they form generally horizontal guide surfaces.

Mechanism for delivering the pineapples in lanes to a row of contourpeeling heads fomis the subject matter of U.S. application to Vadas,Ser. No. 54,528, filed July 28, 1970, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,656,527 andalso assigned to Castle & Cook.

DESCRIPTION OF PRIOR ART against a vertical fixed blade which completelysevers the cylinders. The cylinders are separated by spreader plates andlaid severed faces up on parallel upwardly running trough conveyors forfurther processing.

In the patent to Winkelman, U.S. Pat. No. 2,259,332, Oct. 14, 1941,peaches are rotated by rubber covered fruit turning wheels flanked by acomplimental curved chute which wheels flank a rotating splitting knifewhich severs the peaches and advances them over separating blades. Thesplit peaches are advanced face down in parallel lanes by a conveyor.

The patent to Frank, U.S. Pat. No. 3,196,197, July 27, 1965 disclosespartially severing strips of frozen food from above and below andcompletely severing the strips with a fixed knife.

The patents to Lang, U.S. Pat. No. 2,163,791, June 27, 1939 and Fry U.S.Pat. No. 2,956,501, Oct. 18, 1960, disclose completely severing picklesand potatoes, by pushing them over a fixed upwardly projecting knife.

The patents to Shaw U.S. Pat. No. 2,690,837, Dec. 28, 1954, disclosesoverlapping rotary blades for severing vegetables on a vibrating table.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with present invention,pineapples are precored using known equipment such as a coring tube,leaving some of the core material in place for strengthening purposes;and are then contour peeled. After having removed the crowns and thebutts of the fruit, the precored, peeled pineapples are transferred bymeans of their precore hole to a downwardly inclined cylinder guideassembly comprising a slide rod having a dependent slit guide flange forreceiving the lower slit in the fruit. At the entry end of the guideflange is a slitting knife which slits the lower side of each pineapple.As the pineapples progress down the guide assembly a juice trough on thebottom of the guide flange. for the slit catches the juice. Thepineapples then pass beneath an upper, rotary slitting knife whichcompletes the halving operation while assisting in their advance. Thehalves are then guided along progressively twisting chutes from avertical plane at the upper slitter to a horizontal plane, which chutesgradually diverge to laterally separating condition at their deliveryends for delivery of the halves with their core holes down. The guiderods are somewhat smaller in diameter than the precore holes so thatmulti-lane operation can be provided by curving the guide assemblies asrequired. The material left around the precore holes not only preventsfruit breakage during transfer of the peeled fruit from the peeler tothe slitting and conveying apparatus of the present invention but alsostrengthens the fruit for subsequent conveying and handling. Flaps atthe second slitter assist in maintaining the fruit on their guide chutesas they are twisted from their vertical towards their horizontalorientation. The above construction maintains control of the fruitduring slitting, catches the juice and prevents damage to the fruitduring the slitting and transfer operations.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. I is a section of a pineappleshowing certain major operations performed thereon.

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic plan of a multi-lane peeling head systemembodying the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a view taken along line 3--3 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 illustrates the apparatus for transferring peeled pineapples fromthe peeling heads to the slitting and conveying apparatus of the presentinvention.

FIG. 4A is an enlarged fragmentary section through the dischargestructure taken along line 4A4A of FIG. 4.

FIGS. 5 10 are diagrammatical operational views of the transferapparatus.

FIG. 5A is an enlarged perspective of the stripper plate.

FIG. 10A is an enlarged plan view of the butt cutting knife.

FIG. 1 l is a somewhat enlarged side view of the splitting and conveyingapparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 11A shows a rotary under slitter for a modified form.

FIGS. 12 17 are sections through the guide and slitting apparatus takenas indicated on FIG. 11.

GENERAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE SYSTEM A system embodying the slitting andconveying system 10 of the present invention is shown diagrammaticallyin FIG. 2. Each assembly 10 receives fruit from a peeling head H, therebeing four peeling heads in the system ultimately resulting in 8 lanesof halved fruit being discharged to processing conveyors.

The diagram of FIG. 1 shows the operation performed on the pineapples Pbefore they are halved. First, they are precored to leave a tubularvolume of core material 0 around the precore hole 11, which providesstrength for mechanically handling the pineapples as well as forpreventing breakage during slitting, conveying and further processing.Apparatus for performing this step is well known and usually entailspushing the fruit (which may have its stem end trimmed off) over acoring tube. The second step is to cut off the crown, which is donebefore the third step, which is peeling, the latter being accomplishedby the contour peeling heads H. The fourth step is removal of the buttwhich is accomplished in the present machine (FIG. 9).

Referring to FIG. 4, pineapples P are supplied to each peeling head H bya transfer turret 12 having four combined transfer and peel pins 14 thatare succes sively loaded with pineapples. The details of the transferturret ll2 are not critical to the present invention and this turret andthe structure associated therewith is disclosed in the aforesaidcopending application of Vadas, Ser. No. 54,528, filed July 15, I970,now US. Pat. No. 3,656,527, issued Apr. 18, I972.-

The details of the contour peeeling heads H are likewise not critical tothe present invention. Peeling heads that can be employed are disclosedin the Vadas patent US. Pat. No. 3,522,459, Jan. 5, 1971 for a dampedrotary peeling head and in the patent to deBack, U.S. Pat. No.3,382,900, May 14, I968, for a contour peeler, both assigned to Castle &Cook. After the peel pins 14 (which have drive collars 140) have beenpushed from below to run the pineapples up through the peeling heads H,the contour peeled fruit (which will have had the crown removed beforepeeling and which will have been precored) is pushed with a light pressfit onto a discharge pin 16 above the peeling head. By mechanism to bedescribed presently, the discharge pin 16 first swings to make the buttcut and then swings into alignment with a core tube slide rod 18 formingpart of the handling system of the present invention. A slidingdischarge plate 17, slotted at 17a to clear the rod 18 (FIG. ll) nowadvances to push the fruit over the first (lower) slitting knife19(FIGS. ll and 13), until the lower half of the fruit is completelyslit by the time it reaches the position shown in dotted lines in FIG.11. The slit fruit now slides down the slide rod 8 with the slitencompassing a thin, depending guide flange 22 which orients thepartially slit fruit (see also FIG. 14). Juice from the slittingoperation flows down a depending guide trough 24 from which the juicedrains into a receptacle 26.

The fruit continues to slide down the slide rod 18 and the guide flange22 (or the following fruit pushes it down) until an upper, rotaryslitter 30 is reached. As the fruit passes beneath the slitter 30 it iscompletely severed into halves ph (see also FIG.

The fruit halves ph, the cut faces of which were initially vertical arenow progressively twisted and brought into the horizontal plane bycompanion chutes 32, 320 each having a half guide rib 34, 34a (FIGS. 2and 3). The fruit halves ph, cut face down, are delivered by the chutes32, 32a to cross conveyors 36, 360 (FIG. 2) which in turn deposit themonto longitudinal conveyors 38, 38a for further processing, inspection,trimming, recoring, slicing, chunking, or the like.

TRANSFER APPARATUS CONSTRUCTION The transfer apparatus for receivingfruit from each peeling head H and deposited onto the slide rod 18 ofthe apparatus 10 of the invention is shown in FIGS. 4 and 4A. The feedturret 12 has sliding peel pins 14 each of which receives a fruit in oneposition and is pushed from below in another position to free the fruitup through the contour peeling head H, as is completely disclosed in thepreviously mentioned Vadas application, Ser. No. 54,528, now US. Pat.No. 3,656,527, issued Apr. 18, I972. The transfer apparatus removescontour peeled pineapples that have emerged from the peeling heads H andtransfers them to the slide rods 18, as previously described.

The framework and interconnected drive trains for the various rotaryparts of the transfer apparatus 20 are not shown in the interest ofclarity, it being understood that the moving parts are synchronized, butthe drive details of their mode of synchronization is not critical tothe present invention. The discharge pin 16, as best seen in FIG. 4A,slides in a sleeve 40 having trunnions 42 that pivotally mount thesleeve on frame elements 44 (the frame elements 44 are omitted in FIG. 4for clarity). The discharge pin 16 is initially raised (FIG. 5) and isthen lowered to pick up a peeled fruit from its peeling head by means ofthe fruit precore hole 11 (FIG. 6) and can be swung for transfer of thefruit (FIGS. 9 and MB). In the embodiment shown, the mechanism forraising and lowering the discharge pin 16 comprises a. barrel cam 46(FIG. 4) driven in synchronism with the other cams to be described, andin synchronism with the turret 12. The barrel cam 46 has a groove 47that receives a cam follower roller 48 on a discharge pin operatinglever 50 that is pivoted to the frame at 52. The other end of the lever50 connects to a link 54, the lower end of the link being pivoted to thedischarge pin 16 at 55 (FIG. 4A). Thus rotation of the barrel cam 46raises and lowers the discharge pin 16 and the cam groove 47 is designedto perform this operation in synchronism with other parts of themachine.

In order to swing the discharge pin 16 about its trunnions 42, forcutting the butt end of the pineapple and for transfer to the apparatus10 of the present invention, and in order to independently swing astripper plate 76, a double barrel cam 60 is provided (FIG. 4).

In order to swing the discharge pin, a cam groove 62 receives a followerroller 64 on a pin rocking bell crank lever 66 pivoted to the frame at68. The other end of the lever 66 is pivoted at 69 to a link 70 which ispivoted at 71 (FIG. 4A) to a finger projecting up from the discharge pinsleeve 40. Thus, rotation of the barrel cam 60 oscillates the sleeve 40and swings the discharge pin 116 back and forth about the trunnions 42,first bringing the fruit impaled on the pin 16 to a butt trimming knife74 (see FIGS. 9 and 10A) and then partially retracting the discharge pin16 to bring the trimmed pineapple back in alignment with the slide rod18.

The stripper plate 76 (FIGS. 4 and 5A), is slotted at 77 to clear thepeeling pin 14 and is provided to strip the pineapple from the peelingpin H4 at the end of the peeling operation and insure that the fruitwill remain on the discharge pin 16 as the peeling pin 14 is retracteddown through the peeling head H. The plate 76 is pivotally mounted sothat it can be withdrawn from its stripping position above the peelinghead (as shown in dotted lines in FIG. 4 and as shown in FIG. 5) toaccommodate pushing of the pineapple up through and out of the head.This withdrawal motion of the stripper plate 76 is provided by mountingthe plate 76 on an angled crank arm 78 which is pivoted on the trunnions42 for the sleeve 40, previously described. The stripper plate crank arm78 is oscillated by the second groove 80 in the barrel cam 60, whichgroove receives a cam follower roller 82 mounted on one end of a bellcrank lever 84, the lever being pivoted to the frame at 86. The upperend of the lever 84 is pivoted at 85 to a link 88, which in turn ispivoted at 87 to the upper end of the angled crank arm 78.

The discharge plate 17, previously mentioned, slides back and forth tostrip pineapples from the discharge pin 16 and force them over the firstslitter 19. The discharge plate 17 is slotted at 17a to clear thedischarge pin 16 (FIGS. 11 and 12) and is mounted on a carriage 90 (FIG.4) which reciprocates on frame mounted slide rods 92 (frame mountingomitted). The discharge plate 17 is reciprocated by a disc cam 94 andhas a groove 96 which receives a cam follower roller 98 of a bell cranklever 100 pivoted to the frame at 102. The free end of the bell cranklever 100 is pivoted at 101 to a link 104 and the other end of the link104 is pivoted at 105 to the stripper plate carriage 90. Thus rotationof the cam 94, in synchronism with the other cams 40 and 60, causesreciprocation of the discharge plate 17 along the axis of the slide rod18.

OPERATION OF THE TRANSFER DEVICE Critical stages in the operation of thetransfer device 20 are shown in the operational diagrams of FIGS. 5 10.

FIG. 5 shows the stripper plate 76 in its fully retracted position undercontrol of the barrel cam 60 which position is also shown in dottedlines in FIG. 4. The discharge pin 16 has been fully raised by thebarrel cam 46. The transfer mechanism 12 has one of its peeling pins1.4, with its collar 14a supporting and holding the butt end of thepineapple, pushing a fruit up through the peeling head H.

In FIG. 6 peeling of the individual fruit being followed has beencompleted and the peel pin 14 has com pleted pushing the pineapplethrough the peeling head H. The stripper plate 76 has been advanced bythe cam 80 (FIG. 4) so that the slot 77 (FIG. 5A) surrounds the collar14a on the peel pin 14, below the butt end of the peeled pineapple.

In FIG. 7 the peeling pin 14 is being retracted by the mechanism (notshown) of the transfer turret l2 and the discharge pin 16 is beinglowered to follow the retracting peeling pin by means of the barrel cam46 (FIG. 4). The stripper plate 76 is supporting the butt end of thepineapple and preventing the retracting peeling pin 14 from pulling thepineapple back through the peeling head H.

In FIG. 8 the peeling pin 14 has retracted sufficiently to clear thepeeled pineapple and the discharge pin 16 has fully descended throughthe precore hole. Again, the stripper plate 76 is supporting the butt ofthe pineapple against friction between the discharge pin 16 and the corematerial of the precore hole 11.

In FIG. 9 the discharge pin 16 and the stripper plate 76 have beensimultaneously pivoted by their respective cams 46, 60 (FIG. 4) untilthe stripper plate reaches the butt knife whereupon motion of thestripper plate 76 in this direction stops momentarily. However, thedischarge pin 16 continues its upward pivotal motion in response to theaction of the cam 60 and cam groove 62 (FIG. 4). This additionalswinging motion of the discharge pin 16 brings the butt of the pineappleacross the butt knife 74, thereby trimming off the butt.

In FIG. 10 the stripper plate 76 has been fully retracted and a newpineapple is being pushed up through the peeling head by the nextpeeling pin 14. However, the discharge pin 16 has swung partially backfrom its previous position at the butt knife 74 and now dwells inalignment with the slide rod 18, by action of the groove 62 in thebarrel cam 60 (FIG. 4). During the dwell period of the discharge pin 16in the position of FIG. 10, the discharge plate 17 is lowered by the cam94 (FIG. 4) in a direction parallel to the aligned discharge pin 16 andthe slide rod 18 to strip the pineapple from the discharge pin 16, andonto the free end of the slide rod 18 and to further force the fruitcompletely over the first slitter 19, this also being illustrated indotted lines in FIG. ll. Upon completion of the first (lower) slittingoperation, the cam 46 withdraws the discharge pin 16 and the cam swingsit back in alignment with the peeling pin 14, restoring the conditionsshown in FIG. 5, ready for the next fruit from the peeling head H.

OPERATION OF THE SLI'I'TING AND CONVEYING MECHANISM The operation of theslitting and conveying mechanism 10 is shown in FIGS. 11 17. The actionof the discharge plate 17 in forcing the pineapple P across the firstslitting knife 19 for subsequent sliding down the slide rod 18 has beenpreviously described. The partially slit pineapples then slide down therod 18 being guided by the depending slit guide flange 22, alsopreviously described. Thus the lower slit maintains the orientation ofthe fruit and the pan 26 catches the juice.

As the partially slit pineapples continue down the slide rod 18 theyreach the rotating slitter knife 30 which is mounted on a drive shaft30a. The slitter knife 30 is rotating in a direction to assist in thefurther advance of the fruit by a motor M (FIG. 4). As shown in FIG. 1,the slide rod 18 has a smaller diameter than that of the precore hole 11in the fruit, thereby accommodating any curvature of the slide rod andassociated structure that is required in order to spread out thedelivery paths of the fruit as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3.

The rotary slitting knife 30 completes the halving of the fruit and asthe upper slicing operation is being performed, the upper slit ridesover a guide plate 31 that backs up the slitting knife 30. The chutes 32and 32a start diverging from their upper edges soon after the upper slithas been completed, as shown in FIG. 16. The chutes then separate andare gradually twisted towards the horizontal plane for discharge ontothe discharge conveyors 36 and 36a. The section of FIG. 17 shows thetwist substantially completed. During this process the fruit halves Phare being guided by means of their precore holes 11 sliding along thehalf ribs 34, 34a on chutes 32, 32a.

In order to prevent the slit pineapple halves ph from falling off thechutes 32, 32a while they are substantially vertically oriented, rubberflaps 35 flank the upper slitter 30 and the back up guide 31, as seen inFIGS. ll, 15 and 16.

The precored, peeled, trimmed and halved pineapple portions ph aredeposited by the diverging chutes 34, 34a onto the belts 36, 36a, seenin FIG. 1, whereupon they are transferred into parallel trimming andprocessing belts 38, 38a, as previously mentioned.

The pineapple halves can be recored to remove the remainder of the corematerial at any suitable downstream location, by mechanism such as shownin the copending application of Vadas, Ser. No. 233,094, filed Mar. 9,1972, assigned to Castle and Cook.

FIG. 11A shows a modified form of slitting knife 19a which can besubstituted for the fixed lower slitting knife 19, shown in FIG. 11. Therotary slitting knife 19a is operated by a motor (not shown) and rotatesin a direction to assist in advance of the fruit down the mechanism ofthe present invention.

Thus it can be seen in accordance with the present invention contourpeeled pineapples can be transferred from vertical peeling pins onto adownwardly inclined slide rod and are slit in two stages therebymaintaining orientation of the fruit during slitting as well asproviding for catching of the juice. Control of the resulting fruithalves is maintained after the second slitting operation and the halvesare delivered cut faces down to the conveyors for processing. Byhandling the fruit in its precored condition, fruit breakage isminimized.

Although the best mode contemplated for carrying out the presentinvention has been herein shown and described, it will be apparent thatmodification and variation may be made without departing from what isregarded to be the subject matter of the invention.

I claim:

1. The method of presenting peeled and cored pineapple halves fortrimming or other processing comprising the steps of advancing peeledand cored fruit along a slitting path while supporting them by theircore holes, slitting the advancing fruit from below up to their coreholes, continuing to guide the advancing fruit by their core holes andby the newly formed slit, completely halving the advancing fruit byslitting from above, guiding the resultant halves by their cut facesalong separate conveying paths.

2. The method of claim ll, comprising additionally guiding the halvesalong said divergent paths by their core holes.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said slitting path is downwardlyinclined.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said second slitting operation assistsin advancing the fruit along said slitting path.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the core holes are loosely guidedbetween the slitting operations so that the core hole guide can besomewhat curved without binding on the fruit.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION PATENT NO. 3, 1 ,7

DATED 1 June 25, 1974 lNVENTOR(S) I VADAS, Leslie It is certified thaterror appears in the above-identified patent and that said LettersPatent are hereby corrected as shown below: e

On first page of the Letters Patent on Assignee: change "Coake" to CookeColumn 5, line 51: after 'knife" insert 74 Signed and sealed this 15thday of July 1975.

(SEAL) Attest:

c. MARSHALL DANN RUTH C. MASON Commissioner of Patents Attesting Officerand Trademarks

1. The method of presenting peeled and cored pineapple halves fortrimming or other processing comprising the steps of advancing peeledand cored fruit along a slitting path while supporting them by theircore holes, slitting the advancing fruit from below up to their coreholes, continuing to guide the advancing fruit by their core holes andby the newly formed slit, completely halving the advancing fruit byslitting from above, guiding the resultant halves by their cut facesalong separate conveying paths.
 2. The method of claim 1, comprisingadditionally guiding the halves along said divergent paths by their coreholes.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein said slitting path isdownwardly inclined.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein said secondslitting operation assists in advancing the fruit along said slittingpath.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the core holes are looselyguided between the slitting operations so that the core hole guide canbe somewhat curved without binding on the fruit.